The Black Dahlia - An Unsolved Murder Mystery From 1947

 

 Betty Bersinger went for a walk one morning to a vacant lot in Southwest Los Angeles. She stumbled upon a mutilated body next to the pavement at West 29^th Street and South Norton Avenue, an area known as Leimart Park or ‘Lover’s Lane.’ The body was female, and had been severed at the waist, drained of blood, bathed, and positioned with a gap of approximately thirty centimetres between the upper and lower half. Her greenish blue eyes were open and hands positioned by her head, elbows bent. Her legs were wide apart, rope burn marks adorned her wrists, ankles and neck, lacerations present on her arms, thighs (left only) and right breast. The corners of her mouth had been cut, creating the chilling impression of a smile, there are rumours also that the letters ‘B.D.’ had been carved into her thigh, but this is still speculation and is heavily debated.

 Finis Brown and Harry Hansen arrived and scoured the crime scene, but not before press had arrived and photographed everything. The fact that the body had been bathed and then scrubbed clean meant that there was little evidence to be found. She was identified by fingerprints as twenty-two-year-old actress Elizabeth Short. They surmised she had been killed elsewhere and then driven to this vacant lot. The cause of death was a brain haemorrhage due to concussion, and blood loss due to lacerations on her face.

 From May 1946 she had rented a room a Hollywood home behind the Florentine Gardens nightclub where she worked as a waitress. She had made connections with people in the movie business including her landlord who co-owned the nightclub and part-owned several cinemas.

 Short’s close friend, actress and model Ann Toth told police that Short had been promised a role in Florentine Garden’s burlesque revue. Short shared this news to her mother in a letter dated January the 2^nd 1947. It was the last correspondence she received from her daughter.

 On Thursday 9^th of January she returned from a trip to San Diego with Robert ‘Red’ Manley, a twenty-five-year-old married salesman she had been dating. He dropped her off at the Biltmore hotel where she was to meet her sister. She was seen and remembered in the lobby, and people recall that she headed south on Olive Street and walked five minutes to Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge, she stopped by as if she was looking for someone. Six days later at dawn Wednesday 15^th of January, a black luxury Sedan, driven by an unidentified driver, pulled into the vacant Leimart park. By late morning, Short’s body was discovered.

 On the 21^st of January the editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner had a phone call from someone claiming to be Short’s killer. He congratulated the paper for it’s stellar work on the case, but suggested that it may have run of out material. He said he would turn himself in, to a point, but wanted the police to keep chasing him. He said he was going to send them some souvenirs.

 On the 24^th of January U.S. Postal worker came across a manilla envelope featuring a single letters cut out of a newspaper to create words, it read:

“Los Angeles Examiner and the Other Los Angeles Papers.”

Inside were Short’s birth certificate, social security card, photographs and an address book, embossed with the name Mark Hansen.

 Three more letters were received from a person identifying as the Black Dahlia Avenger. The first was handwritten in ink on a postcard and declared, ‘here it is. Turning in on Wednesday January at 10:00am. Had my fun at police. Black Dahlia Avenger.’ The 2^nd letter was done using cut-out words “Dahlia killer cracking- wants terms.’ On the 29^th of January a third letter indicated the killers change of heart, cut out newspaper letters declared, ‘I have changed my mind. You would not give me a square deal. Dahlia killing was justified.’

 Early in the investigation L.A.P.D. investigators interviewed more than one hundred and fifty men as potential suspects. Ann Toth told detectives that Mark Hansen had tried to seduce Short but had been rejected. With a new plausible motive, he became the number one suspect.

 Next police recovered her handbag and shoe from the top of a waste bin two miles from the place her body was found. The items had been wiped clean with petrol, erasing any potential fingerprints. Mark Hansen identified the handbag and shoe as belonging to Short but denied using the address book bearing his name. No charges were brought against him so he was released. Attention turned to Robert Manley who was officially named as a suspect, and in interviews initially denied knowing Short before changing his story. He twice passed his polygraph tests, however, and therefore was released.

 The media sensationalised the murder on the front pages for several months. They coined it ‘The Black Dahlia’  murder, on account of Short’s love of black clothing and for the Dahlia she wore in her hair.

 The investigation slowed until the summer of 1949, when thirty-nine-year-old Louise Springer, a beauty shop worker was found garrotted in the back seat of her husband’s car, one block away from where Short was found. Many believed the Black Dahlia murderer had struck again. The L.A.P.D. started another manhunt, probing both murders but declared they were not related.

 The Black Dahlia murders, remain a mystery, many attempts have been made to profile the killer. They all agree generally that he was a medical man that craved the lime light.

 Over five hundred people voluntarily admitted to her murder, all were discounted as people simply craving attention. Experts have also expressed doubts as to the authenticity of the letters from the Black Dahlia Avenger suggesting that they were an inside job to sell more newspapers. Today it is the most perplexing unsolved case in the history of the L.A.P.D.